3 More Red Measles Cases Reported

Adult Stricken

May 24, 1989|By MARY BETH REGAN Staff Writer

HAMPTON — The number of area residents infected with red measles has risen to seven children and one adult, up from five confirmed cases Monday.

The state Health Department said Tuesday that a 26-year-old woman has contracted the highly contagious disease. Six of the seven children infected with the virus attended the Fort Monroe Day Care Center in Hampton.

FOR THE RECORD - Published correction ran Thursday, May 25, 1989. An article Wednesday reported incorrectly that six children infected with red measles attended the Fort Monroe Day Care Center. Only three of the children with the virus attended the day-care center; the other three children caught it outside the day-care center.

"At this point, I don't even see the light at the end of the tunnel," said state epidemiologist Heather Ryan.

Ryan said to date all cases have been confined to Hampton, but she urged residents of other localities to be wary of the virus.

Nationwide, the red measles outbreak is "a very serious situation," said Ken Allman of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Fourteen deaths in 1988 and 1989 have been associated with the virus.

Since January, roughly 4,000 cases have been reported in 22 states, compared with 1,000 cases in all of 1988, said Allman.

Red measles, also known as rubeola, can cause serious complications, including seizures and a condition known as encephalitis. Encephalitis, the swelling of brain membranes, can be fatal.

Parents are urged to watch children for symptoms: a fever of more than 100 degrees, a cough, cold symptoms, red watery eyes and a rash. If children exhibit symptoms, they should be taken immediately to a doctor or health clinic, said state epidemiologist Betty Rouse.

Most children are immunized for the virus at 15 months, said Ryan, but between 5 percent and 10 per cent of children or adults who have been immunized still are susceptible to the virus.

Three of the children in Hampton had been immunized before they became ill, Rouse said.

Health officials have advised parents of children between 6 and 14 months who attended the day-care center to have their infants inoculated with a a single-antigen measle vaccine, Rouse said.

Children under 15 months do not receive the full-fledged immunization because it could make them more susceptible to the virus, said Allman of the Centers for Disease Control.

As a rule of thumb, adults older than 30 are not at risk of contracting red measles, Ryan said. A vaccine for the virus was introduced in 1958, she said, so people born before then have most likely been exposed to the virus and warded it off with natural antibodies.

"If they didn't get it then, chances are they are not going to get it now," Ryan said.

People immunized between 1958 and 1970 received an inactive virus, or killed virus, as a vaccine, which "doesn't do anything," Ryan said. Vaccines today contain live viruses.

While the health department is not advising people between 19 and 30 to get shots, Ryan said those individuals should be aware of the risk of infection.

Measles are most commonly spread by coughing. The disease can be transmitted four days before the rash appears, Ryan said.

People can develop red measles up to two weeks after they have been exposed to the virus, health officials said.

The Hampton outbreak is thought to have occurred after a 14-month-old boy contracted the virus while visiting in Houston, where more than 1,700 cases have been reported since December.

The boy is thought to have given the virus to at least one other child at the Fort Monroe Day Care Center as well as to the daughter of a baby sitter.

One 3-year-old who apparently caught the red measles at the day care center held a birthday party for 17 other children while infected, said Rouse.

Another child attended a church nursery, she said. So far, there are no confirmed cases from those exposures.

MEASLES OUTBREAK

*Disease: Rubeola, also known as the red measles or 10-day measles. Highly contagious and more dangerous than Rubella, also known as the German or 3-day measles.